All Forum Posts by: Garrett Penfield

Hi all,

I am in the process of purchasing a fourplex, the inspection found fire damage in the attic. I have not personally seen it but attached are pictures from the inspection report. The former owner is deceased and her daughter is the seller, she claims to have no documentation on the repairs. I looked up the permits with the city and there are none related to fire damage (although their records only go back to 2001). Short of hiring an engineer to sign off on the structural integrity is there anything else I can do to ensure the repairs were done correctly? This could potentially be a flip (I haven’t decided yet), if it is I would like to have some sort of documentation to show the next buyer there are no issues. 

Hey everyone,

I found what I think is a pretty good deal on a fourplex that should flow about 1K a month after all expenses. It just hit the market today, the problem is it’s fully rented and the owners don’t want to bother the tenants with showings. Instead they want me to wait until the 17th to see the inside. I just lost out on a similar deal a few weeks ago with similar circumstances. I had to wait 5 days for the open house then they had 3 offers so I gave them my “highest and best” (which was 5K over asking price) and I still didn’t get it. I don’t think it will last two weeks, is there any other way I can see the inside? Should I just offer the tenants $20 to let me look around for 10 minutes? 

Hi all, I recently bought my first duplex and inherited a tenant. I am living in the other half (unlike the first owner) and when I presented my tenant with a new lease agreement she immediately asked if she could add a person. I said sure they just need to fill out a form so I can do background and credit checks. I got it back and they left a large portion of it blank with the explanation "I'm still going to be responsible for the full lease, so Abbi didn't fill out the income part, and her lease history is the same as mine." She already signed a nine month lease and paid her deposit and first months rent on time. Something seems very fishy, but I'm not sure what it is. Is there any danger in having someone live there and not formally added them to the lease? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the input guys! Electical and gas are divided water is not. it is two bedrooms up and down. The reason for the 20% down is because I'm financing through a government program called NFC. They give you $10,000 to renovate homes in certain areas. One downside of going through the NFC is they don't do PMI. If your down payment isn't enough they make you take out a second personal loan at something like 10% interest to cover the difference. Because of the high interest rate, I'm going to put down whatever I need to to avoid the second loan all together.

Hi all, I'm looking at buying my first rental property through home hacking. I currently own an acerage about 12 miles out of the city, with about 100K in equity I will be selling. Here is the property:  https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/545-6th-St_West-Des-Moines_IA_50265_M86748-68205 it's in a nice neighborhood with a school nearby. Purchase price is $161,000, I have looked at the property and it is in good shape but will need some updating. The top half has a tenant at $750 a month, the bottom half will probably bring $800 to $850 when I move out. I will be putting 20% down which will mean I will pay about $150 a month for the mortgage. What do you think?